Creative Zen Vision W Touts 4.3-Inch Screen

By Geoff Duncan August 30, 2006

Creative Zen Vision W Touts 4.3-Inch Screen

Fresh off its settlement with Apple Computer, Creative has announced is much-rumored Zen Vison W portable media player, sporting a 4.3-inch 16:9 widescreen portable media player, with a 30 GB capacity and oodles and video, image, and music playback capability. The problem: for now, at least, the unit will only be available in Singapore, and there’s no word when it may reach North American shores.

"We designed the Creative Zen Vision W with a stunning 16:9-format widescreen and 30GB or 60GB capacity to be the most compelling portable video player and photo viewer on the market," said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative. "With support for a large selection of video formats, subscription and download music services and a built-in Compact Flash slot for direct transfer of photos from many popular digital cameras, the Creative ZEN Vision W is the ultimate travel companion."

The Zen Vision W supports MPEG-1/2/4 video, Motion JPEG, and XviD video, and offers up to 4.5 of playback time on a single battery charge. As a photo viewer, the Vision W supports Compact Flash I & II media (plus, owners can use a slot adapter to leverage the CF slot for use with other cards, like SmartMedia, SD, and MMC media), and composite AV output lets users pump images or video to NTSC or PAL televisions. The unit sports headphone and audio output, and can play slideshows along to music.

Oh—right, music. The Vision W supports Windows Media-enabled music subscription services like Napster, Yahoo Music Unlimited, Urge, and MSN Music, as well as download services and spoken word content from Audible.com. Sadly, the fruits of the Apple settlement do not include iTunes compatibility. The units also includes an FM receiver with 32 presets, USB 2.0 connectivity, a built-in mic, an organizer application and clock.

Price: in Singapore, the 30 GB unit will be $649; the 60 GB edition will be available by the end of September for $749.

Creative also announced a 60 GB edition of its Zen Vision:M media player, again for the Singapore market. Expect it to hit stores for $599 by the end of September.

Topics

Emerging Tech

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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